Tuesday, January 5, 2010

ALBUM TITLES: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY

My friend Cara and I have a special ritual. Every time Mariah Carey releases a new album, we have a good long laugh over the title. Come on, join us in a nice round of laughter:

Music Box. Daydream. Butterfly. Rainbow. Glitter. Charmbracelet.

A few months before the release of Mariah's current album, Cara sent me the following email: "Her new album will be called.... Wait for it.... Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel."

Laugh out loud. (Thankfully, the music was a million times better than the title.)

Coming Soon: Little Fluffy Bunnies.

Thankfully, when it comes to album titles, all is not dreadfully vomit-inducing. Over the years, some pretty good ones have come along. I realized this recently while getting my Church fix by listening to their 1990 album Gold Afternoon Fix for the first time in countless afternoons. Now there's a solid gold title. Not so much the Church's 1992 follow-up, Priest=Aura, which the lead singer, Steve Kilbey, once told me came to him after misreading a street sign.

While coming up with A-Z lists of hot and not album titles, I noticed some interesting trends. Too many of them unoriginally begin with the word "Song" -- but at least they are, for the most part, pretty good: Songs In The Key Of Life (Stevie Wonder). Songs From The Big Chair (Tears For Fears). Songs To Learn And Sing (Depeche Mode). Songs Of Faith And Devotion (Depeche Mode). Songs From The Last Century (George Michael). Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop (Stone Temple Pilots). Songs In A Minor (Alicia Keys). Songs Of Mass Devotion (Annie Lennox). And simply, Songs (Luther Vandross).

Other observations: Boy George did great album titles, with and without Culture Club (Kissing To Be Clever, Colour By Numbers, Waking Up With The House On Fire, From Luxury To Heartache, Sold, Tense Nervous Headache, Cheapness & Beauty). Michael Jackson, though he got off to a good start (with Off The Wall), didn't. Not that I have anything against ego-tripping titles -- Angela Winbush's Sharp is precisely that -- but Thriller, Bad, Dangerous and Invincible are ego-tripping and kind of cheesy.

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